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Use of dissertation data in science policy research

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Abstract

Although the contribution of scientometric literature to policies on academic science has been substantial, the literature has focused primarily on the production of scientific knowledge, whereas limited attention has been paid to the other critical mission of academic institutions, i.e., education or the production of scientists. To address this limitation and better inform policymakers, the current study proposes a new approach drawing on Ph.D. dissertation data, which we believe should open up a new avenue of scientometric research. Integrating dissertation data with more traditional types of scientometric data such as publications and careers, this study presents a case study of the Japanese science system investigating its transition since the 1970s.

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Fig. 1

Source: School Basic Survey

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Notes

  1. Examples include Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (http://www.ndltd.org/) and OAIster® database (http://www.oclc.org/oaister.en.html).

  2. Explore the British Library (http://explore.bl.uk).

  3. Deutsche Nationalbibliothek (http://www.d-nb.de/).

  4. LIBRIS (http://libris.kb.se/index.jsp).

  5. Sudoc (Systeme universitaire de documentation) (http://www.sudoc.abes.fr/).

  6. Netzwerk von Bibliotheken und Informationsstellen in der Schweiz (NEBIS) (http://www.nebis.ch/).

  7. China Academic Library and Information System (http://etd.calis.edu.cn/).

  8. http://www.proquest.com/products-services/dissertations.

  9. http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/index.html.

  10. http://dbr.nii.ac.jp/infolib/meta_pub/G0000016GAKUI1.

  11. A part of the dissertations are electronically available (https://rnavi.ndl.go.jp/research_guide/entry/theme-honbun-100044.php).

  12. Although submission of dissertations is mandatory, about 4 % of dissertations end up not submitted. According to NDL, it takes about 3 years to complete registering 90 % of all dissertations after their publications.

  13. Paper-based PhDs account for 19 % of all Ph.Ds as of 2008.

  14. http://kaken.nii.ac.jp/en/.

  15. The full names of graduates in the dissertation database and grantees in the GiA database are given in Chinese/Japanese letters as well as in the alphabet. This substantially mitigates the name ambiguity problem for integration.

  16. Thus, postdocs are not included. We also tried longer time window to identify academics, which did not substantially change the result.

  17. An obvious limitation of our approach is that researchers who do not receive GiA funding can be neglected and exit from academic careers can be overestimated. Nonetheless, a survey of GiA grantees in 2006 indicates that only 3 % of academic researchers depended for the majority of their research budget on funding sources other than GiA (Iida 2007: Ch. 6). Among the top seven national universities, Shibayama (2011) showed that about 84 % of full and associate professors received GiA funding at least once in the period 2001–2005. Since academics in private universities are less dependent on GiA, our measurements may be less reliable in such cases. Similarly, HASS fields are less dependent on GiA, which is partly why we focus on STEM fields.

  18. It is often the case that Ph.D. degrees are not required to assume professorship and that degrees are awarded long after graduation.

  19. We excluded foreigners also because name matching is difficult for foreign names, which are spelled in Japanese characters in many different ways.

  20. Source: School Basic Survey (http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/chousa01/kihon/1267995.htm).

  21. Source: https://www.jsps.go.jp/j-grantsinaid/27_kdata/kohyo/h26_01.html.

  22. Universities of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Tohoku, Nagoya, Kyushu, Hokkaido.

  23. A few universities offer 5-year integrated Ph.D. programs. Ph.D. programs in some fields take 4 years, such as in Medicine, Veterinary sciences, and Pharmacy.

  24. Kato and Chayama (2010) find that 32 % of STEM master students changed supervisors from their undergraduate training.

  25. The government controls the admission quota of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Japanese universities. See Ehara and Umakoshi (2004) for more detail about the reform.

  26. Another possibility is that scientists become more likely to be nationally funded in earlier career stages.

  27. We excluded small fields (e.g., Dentistry, Pharmacy) in the field breakdown analyses.

  28. A Lorenz curve is a graphical representation of the cumulative distribution function of, in this case, Ph.D. production. When the curve is away from the line of equality, it suggests that the distribution is skewed toward a small number of universities.

  29. The Gini coefficient is defined as the ratio of the area between the line of equality and the Lorenz curve divided by the total area under the line of equality (Dorfman 1979). Gini coefficient is often used as a measure of inequality. It has several advantageous features such as scale independence and population independence (Ray 1998), which allows us to make inter-temporal and field comparison although the numbers of Ph.Ds and universities are different.

  30. Before the reform, most Ph.D. students were recruited among the graduates from the same university. This was considerably changed due to the increase in the Ph.D. quota. Certainly, graduates from lower-ranked universities desire to enroll in higher-ranked Ph.D. programs. The reform made this feasible, and more importantly, higher-ranked universities are incentivized to enroll many students, which increases labor input as well as block grant allocation (Ehara and Umakoshi 2004: Ch. 3).

  31. The transition of publication distribution is also illustrated as Lorenz curves Fig. 11.

  32. All top seven pre-imperial (large circles) and most top 20 (medium circles) are below the 45-degree line.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by Hoansha Foundation Fellowship, Inamori Foundation, and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science under Grant-in-Aid for Encouragement of Young Scientists (B) #24710160.

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Correspondence to Sotaro Shibayama.

Appendix

Appendix

See Figs. 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

Fig. 7
figure 7

Ph.D. degree field breakdown

Fig. 8
figure 8

Source: School Basic Survey (http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/toukei/chousa01/kihon/1267995.htm)

Trend of Ph.D. enrolment.

Fig. 9
figure 9

Post-graduation career in STEM: university-type breakdown

Fig. 10
figure 10

Trend of publications of Japanese universities in STEM fields. Note: publication data are downloaded from Science Citation Index Expanded of Web of Science. Document types are restricted to article, letter, proceedings paper, or review

Fig. 11
figure 11

Distribution of publication in STEM

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Morichika, N., Shibayama, S. Use of dissertation data in science policy research. Scientometrics 108, 221–241 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-1962-x

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